A steering wheel having the aforementioned generic features is described in WO 2006/076897 A1. The object therein is the integration of horn contacts into a steering wheel, which are brought into electric contact with each other when pressure is exerted on the steering wheel in the direction toward the steering column and thereby activate an acoustic horn signal. If the pressure on the steering wheel is reduced, the horn contacts move out of their contact position into a normal position, in which there is no electric contact between the horn contacts. The horn contacts can be mounted therein respectively on the steering wheel and/or on the airbag module. In the known steering wheel, the horn contacts are configured as strip-shaped contact plates. Screws with corresponding nuts, for example, are provided as attachment means for the metal strips; ultrasonic welded domes are proposed as an alternative. Form-fitting connections in the shape of projections that can be inserted into corresponding openings are additionally provided.
The known steering wheel of the above type has the disadvantage that the configuration of the horn contacts from sheet metal and their attachment on the steering wheel and/or on the airbag module is laborious. The punching of the strip-shaped horn contacts and the required cleaning of the punched edges represent a laborious sheet metal processing step. In another approach, the mounting of screw connections or also the ultrasonic welding in the assembly of the airbag module on the steering wheel are furthermore difficult to carry out and require corresponding processing and assembly steps.
It is an object of the invention to configure a steering wheel such a way that the integration of horn contacts in the design of the steering wheel and/or the airbag module is possible in a simple way.